We leave Holland via the Autobahn and head back into Germany, once again we are left standing by the traffic in the left hand lane. Scary stuff but the Germans seem to be very good drivers. We end the days ride at a village called Melsungen, we never seem to have a destination we just follow the camping signs.
A good pick, a camping ground on a river with a central lake. The owner was a gregarious German who now lives half his life in Spain and the other half running the caravan park, but previously was into freight forwarding and travelled all over the world.

The weather was stiflingly hot so we go to the bar and have a few pints (three to be exact) of the local ale, the owner comments on our drinking prowess "You are very thirsty" and gives us a welcome present two small bottles of German liqueur, one like Baileys and one which apparently is good for the stomach. We follow the afternoon Happy Hour with a swim in the lake.

Then of course the inevitable happens, a massive thunder storm hits, but by this time we are back at the bar restaurant for tea. Schnitzel (of course) pomme frites and cabbage salad. What to do about the storm, we stay chatting with the owner until it abates and bolt back to the tent. Bang, crash, thunder and lightning, time to put the ear plugs in and hope for the best.

We wake in the morning, tentatively sticking our head out of the tent but all is Ok, overcast but dry.

A nice days ride ensues down part of the Romantic Road which officially runs from Wurzburg to Fussen through Bavaria. It is incredibly hot and humid, and we end up getting moderately lost as we are diverted through a town but after the town no more diversion signs. The GPS saves the day as our map is not that detailed.

The sky gets darker and darker, so we stop to put on our wet weather gear, unfortunately we are 5 minutes too late and while getting our gear out of the panniers we end up soaked.

Oh well keep riding, which we do for another two hours till finally we both decide we have had enough, everything is wet including my passport, buggar, forgot to put it in a plastic bag.

Stop at one Gausthaus but the owner has just got rid of twelve cyclists so is having the day off, ride past another hotel in a little village called Bettwar, has a sign outside 21 euro, per person (but in German of course) so I venture in, perfect, huge room in a quaint village complete with restaurant and bar.

Whenever we stay in a lovely hotel room we instantly trash it, turning it into a drying room, come Chinese Laundry, in short we make a huge mess. It storms that evening but not before we manage to take a walk around the village.

Next day we take a short ride into Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber. This quaint well preserved medieval town, with cobble stoned streets is enclosed by huge stone walls, the only entry and exit points being through the ancient gates. The Lonely Planet Guide tells us that according to a legend the town was saved during the Thirty Years' War when the mayor won a challenge by the Imperial General Tilley by downing more than 3 litres of wine at a gulp. Sounds like he could give Bob Hawke a run for his money.

After a long chat with an English couple who want to know about our trip, we exit via the medieval gates and continue onwards towards Fussen.

We are not sure how it happened but somehow we get diverted off the Romantic Road again and have to ride along a VERY Unromantic Road until the GPS gets us back on track only to be diverted again around a horrendous looking accident (Did I mention it is now raining again) tierd and wet we call it quits early at a grottyy pub run by a very cranky little man, not with us but yells at his staff all the time. Even though the room is questionable, the surroundings are picturesque, a church to the right, a huge barn full of cows to the left and mountains all around.

We enjoy a lovely Italian meal at a little restaurant across the road and when we come out of the restaurant we go for a walk around the town. Somewhere in the distance we can hear a band playing, we follow the music past the cows, and dairy to the local school.

Skill being Skill, walks up the stairs and into the stairwell outside the auditorium. Inside there is a thirty piece band in traditional Bavarian dress and a small audience. During the next break the band leader walked over and asks us to join the audience.

The concert was a final dress rehearsal for the band for a concert the following night. What a treat for us, they played a mixture of traditional and modern music for an hour and a half. Of course it was one of the times we had left the camera in the hotel room and neither of us wanted to miss out on any of the concert, so you will have to take our word for it, they looked and sounded stupendous.

It is at this point I should point out that this village was no bigger than Yarraman or Mt Mee (a comparison for the folks at home) but the school was beautifully equipped and had a huge centrally heated auditorium and quite large modern classrooms, obviously Germany places a lot of value on Education and their schools???????

The following day we head into Fussen which is only five minutes ride away, this scenic little town is home to the Neuschwanstein Castle which we check out from a distance as there are so many tour buses around.

We also make contact with Luzius and Irene our friends in Zurich (Skill comes back slightly embarrassed and says "I'm pleased I rang, they live on Lake Zurich not Lake Geneva, but that's closer anyway" After coffee and strudel we ride into Austria.

We have a days ride through Austria bypassing Innsbruck and heading over the mountain passes and yes once again the mountain passes and roads are glorious. We end the day having to pay an outrageous 10.50 Euro toll to ride through a 15km section of the Piz Buin Mountain Pass, we were slightly outraged as there were no toll signs on the road (well none we could read anyway) and we had bought our vignette (sticker) to use on the freeways.

We end the day camped in a tiny campground run by a lovely old couple who came and visit us to check out the bike, we had a very long conversation, them in Austrian and us in English, but I think they got the drift of what we were doing and where we were going. That night we have more live music as the people in the house across the road are having a rock jam session in the garage.

And it rains and rains and rains. Next morning it is still raining so we stay in bed hoping it will go away but of course it doesn't, it just gets heavier and heavier so we make breakfast in the tent and pack up in the tent, get our gear on in the tent and then pack up the tent in the rain. I emerge from the tent into the pouring rain with all my riding gear including my helmet, Skill says I look like something from Apollo 13.

We have a whole day of riding through the rain, into Liechtenstein, to Valduz and then out of Liechtenstein into Switzerland, that took about half an hour. No photos, sorry as it was raining very hard but we can report that the Prince is doing a bit of a refurb on the Palace Valduz, apparently he can afford it, he is worth 3.3 billion pound sterling. Other interesting facts about Liechtenstein is there are 80 000 companies registered there, double the population and they are the worlds largest exporter of false teeth.

The rain just gets worse and worse but we keep riding as we want to get to Luzius and Irenes. We are nearly there when a torrential thunder storm hits (think of a summer downpour is Brisbane) thunder, lightning and driving rain, road flooding with manhole covers on the road popping up, not something you want to see while riding a bike. We are absolutely soaked except for the riding gear underneath our gortex liners. I have to tip the water out of my bag as Skill does with his back pack. Five minutes later we arrive at Luzius and Irene's place.

For those of you who don't know the story, we got to meet Luzius and Irene six years ago. Skill and his two mates Pete and Mark were doing a two week outback ride when they came upon a young Swiss couple in a broken down old Range Rover. They helped them as best they could and organised the Garage in Birdsville to tow them, and then of course spent the evening with them in the Birdsville Pub. Later when Luzius and Irene arrived in Brisbane they looked us up and stayed with us for a night.

It was so lovely to see them again, they are such a great couple and the open hearted generosity they showed to us was overwhelming.

Their home is right on Lake Zurich, complete with boat shed in the front garden and directly behind is the Lindt chocolate factory. It is in such a picturesque location. We have our own little flat where we are able to spread out and dry out.

The evening we arrived we shared dinner with their friends and family for their monthly movie night.

Next day Irene takes us to visit Zurich and Luzius joins us in the evening, we go for drinks in a bar overlooking Zurich and then they take us to dinner at a great restaurant which is housed in a very old converted stable. They are very naughty and won't let us pay for anything.

We spend most of our time talking and catching up. It is also great for us to have a break from travelling and Skill spends time downloading photos etc.

Luzius and Irene take us to see the house and land they have bought and will soon be renovating/building. We also go for a walk along some beautiful country lanes. We are amazed that you just come across a café in the middle of nowhere, we also stop at a farmhouse where they sell cordials, coffee and cake. All based on an honesty system.

Luzius' family are amazingly generous and include us in their lives, a late lunch we share a traditional Swiss Dinner, "Raclette", potatoes, special melted cheese and lots of accompaniments. Sensational.

We share many memorable meals with them including a fantastic grill cooked indoors.

Luzius brother and Australian wife were also visiting. They are a wealth of information about the Middle East as they both worked for the Red Cross, their last assignment was 12 months in Afghanistan.

We do not want to leave Zurich or these wonderful people and a broken tent pole gives us an excuse to stay another day. Skill goes back into the city to buy a repair kit. That night Luzius is away with work but Irene takes us out to dinner, a lovely Pizzeria right on the Lake.

Such hospitality, we are looking forward to reciprocating as they did not have a good time in Brisbane, their hire car got broken into, and their cameras and other gear was stolen. Then when their battery died, no one would help jump start them. These are not the kind of stories you like to hear about your home town. So much for Queensland hospitality.

We do manage to drag ourselves away after 5 days but not until we have a shared lunch on the waterfront.

We head back the way we came into Zurich making for the mountain passes. Up and over the Klausenpass, where we come across the Swiss army on maneuvers just before it starts to rain AGAIN.

We find an idyllic hotel, Hotel Eidleweiss not too far from Wassen. I think the photos tell the story. A more scenic location would be hard to find.

Next day we ride more mountain passes - Sustenpass, Grimselpass, Nufenenpass, Pso d S. Gottardo.

Before heading up the Maggia Valley to camp the night. Slight problem. The Camping Grounds we try are full, the last one on our list is also full, what to do now? We are weighing up our options when the manager walks past and starts chatting to us, he is a biker and cannot believe we are travelling on an Australian bike. He finds us a small space and does not charge us for the night. Every time things seem hopeless an angel appears, even if it is in the form of an aging biker.

Next day is an early start riding the Pso del s. Bernadino and Splugenpass where we cross the border into Italy. At the border they take absolutely no interest in us at all, we are interrupting their morning coffee and paper.

We camped the night just inside the Italian border at a very scenic campground near Chiavenna, complete with mountains, waterfalls and an old (falling down) church.

Next day out of Italy back into Switzerland over the Julierpass near St Moritz,

over the A'Lbulapass into the town of Zernez where we camp the night in a campground beside a river in the mountains. It is freezing, well not quite but less than ten degrees. We manage to cook our dinner and drink our Aussie Red before the rain starts.

When we awake next morning it has stopped raining but there is fresh snow on the mountains all around us.

Onwards towards Bolzano after crossing back into Italy. It starts to rain so we stop in a quaint village for coffee and cake.

We seem to have now had endless wet weather. We get caught in a traffic jam and it just continues to rain and rain and I might mention the temperature is less than ten degrees again. In the end I have had enough and say to Skill take the next exit off the Freeway, which he does than we have a choice of right or left. Hmm go Left which he does, then we have a choice of two three star hotels,(which is amazing as this village is in the middle of nowhere) hmmm the one on the left. Yes they have one room left, it is very expensive but includes dinner and breakfast and there is a Garage for the moto. Yay, in under half an hour I go from cold and wet to soaking in a hot bubble bath with a glass of red in salubrious surroundings. Sometimes everything goes right, but other times of course it doesn't.

The staff at the hotel are quite taken with us and seem to go all out to look after us, it turns out we are their first Australian guests in five years. It also turns out that we are in the German speaking part of Italy, which I didn't know existed.

They really are lovely, at dinner time they find someone who can speak a tiny bit of English and through charades and descriptive narrative we get the general gist of the menu.

Manager pointing to menu "Animal ....mmm....." she then puts her hands on top of her head indicating ears.

Lan "Baa baa"

Manager "No"

Lan "Moo moo"

Manager "Yes, little little."

Skill "Oh calf, veal."

Next item on the Menu

Manager "Animal"

Lan "Baa Baa"

Manager Purses her lips, no

Lan "Oink oink"

Manager "No no"

Lan "Fish"

Manager" No No Animal brings Eggs, Easter"

Lan "Rabbit"

Manager "Yes Rabbit"

And finally she explains the last dish is Tofu, but her look of disdain at this vegetarian dish obviously precludes us from ordering it out of respect for her efforts. We have to remember we are in the German part of Italy and the Germans love their meat.

All I can say is thank goodness the starter, entrée and desserts were from a buffet where we helped ourselves.

The next day we are both very loath to leave but load up the bike and onwards to, well we aren't sure but at least it is not raining. We have a lovely days ride up and over some more mountain passes with Pso de Mendola, Madonna di Campiglio where admire the saw-tooth like Dolomites mountains the highest peak being 3150 metres.

We ended up taking the freeway from Bresica to Piacenza where we decide we should start looking for accommodation, well Piacenza is gross so we ride along the Trebbia River where we eventually spy a camping ground in a tiny village which remains nameless to us, we camped next to some hippies that partied till 4 am and then their dog started howling at 6.00am, Thank God for ear plugs is all I can say. The only saving grace was the wonderful pizzeria in the town Piazza only a short walk away, cheap, fantastic huge servings, and really friendly helpful people who helped us out choosing the best pizzas for us.

Next day we have a lovely days ride through the hills along a very winding road that continues to follow the Trebbier River. At one point we stop to put on the wet weather gear, near a water truck, and once again we have a conversation with the driver, him in Italian, us in English but the general gist of it was, all this rain and here I am delivering water, ridiculous. We enthusiastically agree.

It was one of those days when things should have been simple, ride along the coast and find a camping area. We end up riding aimlessly, looking for camping check out two, yuck, third down a goat track, where the bash plate gets crunched and to top it off we are running low on fuel. The only upside was we saw some lovely villages and beautiful coastline and bays.

Eventually we back track to Deiva Marina, however when we arrive at the camp ground we have a choice of only two camping spots on a terraced hill, both look as though they are pretty wet and will flood easily but we take our chances. We are pretty tierd so just decide to stay put for a couple of days, and to be honest we didn’t even leave the camping ground. We enjoy two nights but decide we will stay another night, mainly because it is raining but also because I have been bitten by a wasp (while reading my book in the tent, unbelievable) and my arm has blown up like a balloon.

Skill spends the morning downloading photos and researching ferries to Greece, and we are just having our lunch when we can hear the thunder rolling in. I go and grab a big sheet of plastic that some campers have left behind and put it under and up the sides of the tent while Skill builds a small diversionary wall, we then sit in the tent, open a bottle of red and hope for the best.

A torrential down pour with thunder and lightning, there was a river of muddy water running under the plastic under the tent, and thank God Skill built the wall otherwise we would have been soaked as the water was gushing down from the terraces above, it was like a waterfall.

Finished the bottle of wine about the same time the storm finished and emerged with damp tent floor but otherwise reasonably unscathed.

It stormed again during the night but nothing like the afternoon. We packed up our mud soaked tent the following day and had a late start, an ordinary days ride to Sienna. We take the exit off the highway to Sienna North and I make Skill stop so I can pull out the Lonely Planet to check where the Camping Area is. After consulting the guide book, the Compass and the GPS we work out our plan of attack, only to look over at the roundabout to see a dirty great big Camping sign. AHHHHH we have just wasted 20 minutes. This seems to happen to us a lot. We find the camping area which is on the side of a hill in the dirt, but OK. Once again set up camp and go to the Bar/Pizzeria for tea. We have found camping to be very expensive in Italy. The cheapest place we have stayed in was 20 Euro. That's $32 AUD and you have to pay 1 Euro each for the shower and 1 Euro 60 cents to use the pool. The most expensive was 32 Euro!!.

I have to tell you about the SHOWER SAGAS, each camping ground has its own shower protocol which every other camper in the place seems to be aware of but we are completely in the dark. Some places the showers are included in the price, but you have to press a single button in and the water comes out for approximately ten secondsif you're lucky, not great for hair washing, so you have to position your bottom to press the button in continuously so you can rinse your hair. The next challenge is whether it is token or coin operated hot water, if it is a token you have to go and do battle in French, German, Belgian, Dutch, Austrian, Swiss or Italian explaining you want a shower token, this usually takes me half an hour. Then sometimes it is a flickmaster tap, sometimes two taps and sometimes just a cold water tap so when the scalding water comes out of the nozzle and burns you you realise you have to turn the cold tap (which is never labeled cold) on. The other combo is token/coin plus a press button that you have to keep pressing. There are other various combinations including upside down flickmaster taps, wrongly labelled hot and cold taps, but the very worst is paying 30 Euro to camp in a very dodgy campground only to find they have NO hot water.

Siena is a gorgeous Tuscany town with a labyrinth of cobblestone streets and well preserved Gothic buildings.

According to the legend Siena was founded by the sons of Remus - one of the twins raised by the wolf and also one of Rome's founders. We catch the local bus into the town from the camping area and visit the shell shaped Piazza del Campo the towns cultural centre for 700 years.

They are still in the process of cleaning up after the Palio two days previous to our visit. The Palio is a wild horse race and pageant held in the Piazza. Siena is divided into 17 districts and 10 of these are chosen annually to contest the race. The town is still in party mode so we enjoy the atmosphere.

We visit the Doumo (Cathedral) which was begun in 1196 but don’t go inside due to the long line, and then it is off to the Chiesa di San Domenico & Santuario di Santa Caterina churches where St Catherine's preserved head and thumb is displayed - gruesome. It is a lovely church and seems to be visited by many monks.

Next day we have a really scenic ride through the heart of Tuscany, glorious countryside, picturesque towns perched on hilltops and an indescribable light that seems to bathe the countryside in pastel shades. We end the day in a beautiful camping ground near Narni between Rome and Assisi.

In the camp ground next to us are two Dutch girls Hedwig and Claudia who have ridden their bicycles from Holland, Rome being their final destination. We get chatting and they share a bottle of red with us.

We share our dilemma with them, to go to Rome or not to go to Rome. They insist we have to go to Rome and show us some good camping areas that provide shuttles to the local transport. That night we mull over what to do.

Next day it is decided we are off to Rome. The girls have already left and when we are packing up the bike we find two tiny little dutch clogs tied to the tank bag. A really easy days ride down the Via Flaminia only taking a tiny wrong turn and we are at the Camping Tiber. Easy.

The campground is very good, quite expensive to camp and reasonably cheap for a cabin so we take that option. It is 40oC+ so we spend the day by the pool drinking beer and lots of water. The evening was still so hot we didn’t feel like eating so we just got a pizza at 10 o’clock and fell into bed some time later still sweating. Of course an inevitable big thunder storm hit after midnight, but no problem in the cabin. At least it cooled things down.

For the next two days we wander Rome and see the usual tourist things, but hey its our first time in Rome.

Day One
The Spanish Steps with the church cloaked in scaffolding as is the case almost everywhere we seem to go throughout Europe.

The Trevi Fountain with just a few tourists...

The Colosseum

The Pantheon

That night we get back to the camping area late and run into Hedwig and Claudia who join us for happy hour where we celebrate their bicycling achievement Holland to Rome, over 2000 km. These two great girls also tell us that they are on their honeymoon so we drink to that as well. Then out to dinner at 10.30 pm. (I love that about Italy)

Day 2
The Vatican and St Peters

The following day we leave Rome, let me rephrase that, we try to leave Rome. We want to get onto the Ring Road but the entrance we need to use is undergoing roadworks and there are NO signs, it takes us an hour with us nearly riding into the centre of Rome and back out again. We do eventually get onto our chosen road and off we go. Most of the days riding is on the freeway, of course we take the wrong exit and end up in the grossest towns imaginable, not somewhere you would like to find yourself after dark. Eventually making our way down to the Amalfi Coast. Unfortunately it is very hazy due to fires.

It is at this point that I should mention the driving. Everyone had told us how chaotic the driving was in Rome, but for us it seemed fine - just. However the closer we got to Naples the crazier and more dangerous it got. Poor Skill. I don't think he got to see any of the Amalfi Coastline as he was too busy watching the road and the traffic. Cars overtaking on blind corners, cars three across, buses and trucks just driving up the middle of the road. Scooters running up the inside and outside of us. While indicating that you were turning left across oncoming traffic was just an invitation for traffic to overtake you on the side you wished to turn, but the worst was the unlit tunnels with scooters and cars overtaking in both directions over double lines. We ended the day tierd and a little nervy at Sorrento in a camping area with ocean views to Mt.Vesuvius, but was littered with rubbish, had cold water and charged 30 Euro.

We decided to head to the beach for a swim but when we were walking down the steps to get there we walked past a sewerage treatment plant and the beach water was also full of plastic bags and rubbish (and we assume also sewage discharge). OK plan B sit on the jetty, drink beer and watch the locals. Oh yes and a glorious sunset over Mt. Vesuvius.

Trying to decide what to do for dinner we are accosted by some local restaurateurs who want us to eat at their restaurant which we do. So glad we did, what a treat, fantastic gnocchi, and mussels and spaghetti. And of course the obligatory red.

Next day is a huge days ride, a whole 34 km to Pompeii where we camp in another awful camping area in the dirt. Not only is it in the dirt but there are feral mangy dogs in various states of decaying health, everywhere. Oh well we are here for one night and we are opposite the entrance to Pompeii Scarvi.

When Vesuvius blew its top in AD79 it buried Pompeii under burning fragments of pumice stone killing 2000 people in the eruption. The ruins are very impressive and give an insight into the lives of wealthy Romans.

For us it was well worth the visit, but once again it was very dirty with a lot of rubbish strewn around. Skill was quite impressed as some of the mummified bodies on display were ones he can remember seeing in a "National Geographic" when he was a child.

An absolutely fascinating place where you could probably spend weeks. It was very hot so we only lasted 5 hours before heading back to camp.

Back at camp we opted for a few beers and a chat to a lovely English couple, Paul and Penny who were on a three week holiday travelling on their Honda CBR1100. We spend the evening with them trading travel stories.

We managed to leave Pompeii quite early and travelled the freeway to Bari. The freeways in Italy are quite expensive, it cost us 10.60 Euro for this section of highway. We had to pay at an automatic toll station which had vehicles queued for ages. While trying to feed the money into the machine I dropped my coin purse so had to get off the bike in a hurry and managed to twist my knee badly, as there was little room between the bike and the payment machine. I am now hobbling.

Down to the ferry terminal and tickets are purchased. Yay we are on our way to Greece but that of course is another story.

We are happy, safe and well (except for a dicky knee) now lazing on a Greek Beach.

Cheers and Beers

Quote of the Week: "Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less travelled by" - Robert Frost